What’s the fuss about 5G?

Published March 12, 2019 by
Mark Ko

Besides the trade war between the US and China, another issue that is giving the Chinese, specifically Huawei, lots of negative media attention is 5G.

The US and many other European leaders have openly rejected Huawei to set up a 5G network in their country. It’s a massive setback for the Chinese telecommunications giant who has come a long way to become a world-renowned technology company.

To understand what’s happening, we need to first understand the capability of 5G.

Without a doubt, 5G is the mobile network connection that the Internet of Things (IoT) has been waiting for. It is faster than 4G, a clear understatement of the year. When we say 5G is faster, we are talking about ten times faster from one gigabit per second to ten gigabits per second difference.

For example, if you are to download an HD movie via 4G, it will take you more than an hour to complete. With 5G, we are talking about seconds.

Also, 5G is almost signal interference-proof. Because the 5G connection is riding on a higher frequency, which is hardly in use, it is not susceptible to signal disturbances. Our current 4G, on the other hand, though fast, has rarely reached its full potential because of buildings and other wireless signals that cause interferences. This, in turn, affects the speed of the 4G connection.

The implementation of 5G network anywhere will greatly enhance mobile, home or work broadband experience. Its stable and responsive connection will also help self-driving cars, virtual reality products and smart home reach their true potential.

With 5G bringing so many benefits to the table, why are the US and the other European leaders rejecting Huawei, who’s one of the first to offer the technology? Freedom of Internet.

They believe that whoever lays the network for 5G holds the key to internet freedom. As China is known to have restricted internet freedom, the fear is that certain information may be censored upon requests from the Chinese government. Not to mention, the leaders also want to prevent potential and even more sophisticated cyber attacks backed by the Chinese government.

Then again, does it mean that the telecommunications giants in the US and European countries won’t leverage their 5G technology to do the same to their client countries? We will never know.

But one thing we do know is that 5G technology will revolutionise the way we use the internet whether it’s implemented by Huawei, T-Mobile, Nokia, Verizon and etc.